#frifotos – Welsh Cakes are my #goodthings

My #goodthings for this week’s# FriFotos are Welsh cakes.  They are bound up with happy memories of my Welsh Nana who would come to stay with a big biscuit tin full, “look”, she’d say lifting the lid to reveal, layers of golden, currant speckled cakes wrapped in greaseproof paper, “I’ve baked some cakes”.

She showed me how to make them measuring in handfuls, flour, sugar, currants about so much fat, egg and milk to bind, nothing exact more a sense, hopeless to try and write down.  They were baked on a sturdy cast iron griddle kept in the cwtch under the stairs (I think my grandfather had it made in the colliery up the road). “ He’s a bit quick”, meant it was too hot.

I’ve got the making of them now, buying them would be unthinkable. I can hear Nana, “ there’s daft”, askance at the cost of a Welsh cake in the cafe in town and the idea that anyone wouldn’t make their own. The smell of them baking is homely and simple and invariably brings the family into the kitchen to sneak one off the cooling rack – they’re very moreish.

Yes, Welsh cakes are #goodthings I love to share and hope to pass on.